The Kingdom of the Sun
by RabidFaerie
Summary: What if Pacha had an older daughter? One who went with him to the capital. One that knew about the village being destroyed. One that helped save the emperor. What would happen to the story then? COMPLETE! (Information about updates on my profile.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first story. I was watching The Emperor's New Groove and thought Pacha looked a little old to have to young children. I mean he and his wife could have had some that died young, considering the time period, so I imagined him an older daughter from a previous marriage (again, the time period). So here is her adventure with her father and an emperor turned llama. And, of course, I own nothing but my character.**

The day that her father had gotten the summons from the emperor and she knew it would be her only chance to go to the capital city at least before she was married off. She had heard that the castle was golden and amazing, and all she wanted was to see it once in her life.

She begged for hours, days even, after her father had received the summons, trying to convince him that he should take her. Finally, whether he agreed with her or just wanted to hear the end of it, he caved and told her that she could go. So, Atoc was on her way to the capital, on a trip that would change her life, but that comes later.

* * *

The capital was absolutely amazing. It was so crowded and full of people. Atoc looked around at the hustle and bustle that was around her as she sat on the front of the cart, a green traveling scarf wrapped around her dark hair, while her father, Pacha, lead their llama, Misty, through the mess of people.

Her father was the village leader back home and had been summoned to the palace to meet with Emperor Kuzco. The reason why had not been stated on the summons, but she thought that it had to be something truly important. The trip was dangerous and took a few days, even by the shortest route, so whatever the emperor needed had to be important.

Pacha and Atoc were finally able to find a stable to let Misty rest in, and too keep their cart in while they went to the palace. Pacha didn't want to take his oldest daughter to the palace, but was more afraid of the trouble she could get into in the market, so he decided it would be best to keep an eye on her while they were in the capital, and he had placated her by promising to let her shop in the market for trinkets to take home and give to her siblings.

The father and daughter made their way to the palace, though there were more steps up to the top than they were expecting they made it eventually. But once they got there, they weren't quite sure where to go. So Pacha took it upon himself to do what all men hate, he asked for directions.

"Uh, excuse me. I'm here to see Emperor Kuzco. You see, I got this summons-" Pacha was cut off by the blue and red painted guard before he could finish his question.

"Inside, up the stairs and to the left. Just follow the signs." The guard was obviously tired of having to answer this question. There were signs to tell people where to go. The abruptness of the guard's answer threw Pacha for a loop.

"Oh, great. Thanks a lot." He smiled as he walked off, his daughter bouncing along next to him, trying to contain herself. Atoc was looking around at everything, her dark brown eyes trying to absorb what she was seeing so she would remember it forever, and so she could keep her little siblings entertained with what she saw. But as they were walking past the gold colored banners, an old man was stuck in one. The sight of the old man made her stop and stare, as she wondered how in the world he got to be stuck.

Pacha hadn't noticed that his daughter stopped or that the old man was stuck, so when the shoe fell on his head he was surprised.

"Oh!" He caught the black sandal that bounce off of his head, looking at it confused. Until a hand reached down and tapped his shoulder.

"Uh, pardon me. That's mine." The old man pointed to the sandal in Pacha's hand.

"Oh, here you go." The younger man said, as he handed the shoe back to the man stuck in the banner. Atoc had unfrozen by this point and was ready to help her father get the old man down, but that didn't seem to be on Pacha's mind.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Pacha began to walk away from the man, Atoc was about to call him back, but it seemed like what he had just seen registered in his brain, because Pacha let out a startled cry and ran back to help the man down. "UHH! Oh, hey. Are you all right? Here. Let me, uh..."

"Oh, you're so very kind." The old man said to Pacha, as Atoc handed him the cane that was lying on the ground.

"What happened, sir?" Atoc inquired politely.

"Well, I... I threw off the emperor's groove." The poor old man sounded as though he had committed a serious crime.

"What?" Pacha and Atoc were confused. Maybe the old man had hit his head doing whatever got him stuck in the banner, because he was not making any sense.

"His groove, the rhythm in which he lives his life, his pattern of behavior. I threw it off, and the emperor had me thrown out the window."

"Oh, really? I'm supposed to see him today." Pacha was having second thoughts now. If the emperor's 'groove' had been thrown off would the meeting still go ok? Or should he come back another day?

"Don't throw off his groove!" The man warned grabbing onto the front of Pacha's poncho in order to make is point absolutely clear. The groove was not to be thrown off, at any cost.

"Oh, okay." The man that had been thrown out the window started to walk away from the pair of peasants that were watching him. He gave them a final warning as he went.

"Beware the groove." Atoc was worried about his health, he seemed rather shaken up.

"Sir, are you sure that you're ok?" She called after the man. But he didn't respond with a yes or a no.

"Groove." Was the warning he whispered again as he headed toward the steps with a wave.

"Oh I do hope he'll be alright." Atoc said; her face scrunched with worry. Her and her father turned to go into the palace. Even if they were slightly scared at the mood the emperor was going to be in.

They showed their summons to the steward, who told them that they would be announced and showed in to the throne room in just a moment.

"I think that you should wait out here. I don't know what the emperor wants, and I'd be more comfortable if you were out here than in there with me." Pacha told his daughter before they were announced. Atoc sighed loudly, disappointed that she wasn't going to see the throne room, but she understood where her father was coming from.

"Fine, but I'm not happy about this." She acquiesced, before adding, "But no promises that I won't eavesdrop through the door."

"Alright, you may go into the throne room now." The steward informed them, having heard the emperor's second demand for the village leader.

"Uh, afternoon, Your Highness. I'm here because I received a summons..." Atoc watched as her father poked his head into the room, cautious. As soon as he was through the door, her body was pressed to the other side so that she could hear the exchange between the ruler of the country and her father. Not that it was hard to eavesdrop, considering the door was left open.

"Hey, there he is! My main village man." Kuzco said from the throne, several yards above the village leader, happy to see the man that could solve his problem.

"Um, Pacha. Anyway, l-I got this summons..." Pacha moved a little farther into the throne room, but still wasn't too close to the throne.

"Pacha." The young emperor faked forgetfulness. He truly didn't know the name of the man before him. "That's right. You are just the man I wanted to see."

"I am?" Now the villager was confused, he had never done anything that would have been noticed by the emperor. So how was it that the man knew he needed to the leader to come in?

"Word on the street is you can fix my problem." The emperor got up from his throne and slid down a rope that was on the front of the platform that the chair sat on. "You can fix my problem, can't you?" The emperor ended with an almost innocent look on his face, like he would be mildly disappointed if the man before him couldn't help him fix the problem.

Though Pacha didn't know what the problem was, it was just in his nature to help people, and this was the emperor, so it must be important.

"Sure. I'll do what I can." The older man said with a shrug, as the emperor walked over to him.

"Good, good. That's just what I wanted to hear." Kuzco said, patting Pacha on the shoulder, leading him to another room. "Are you aware of just how important your village is to the empire?"

Atoc strained to hear what was being said, even with the echo that the cavernous room created. She knew her village was important to the capital, after all they grew the crops for the palace and groomed the llamas that were used for the emperor's clothes and other cloth around the palace.

Was there something wrong with what had been delivered? Did the emperor need more than what was delivered? She ran through what her father had taught her, but she could think of nothing that would cause anything to be wrong.

She wanted to sneak into the room and continue to eavesdrop, but as she moved toward the door, the guards came out, bringing her father with them.

"You can't do this. Please!" He was yelling. He didn't even seem to realize that he was back with his daughter.

"Dad? What happened? What did the emperor say? What's wrong?" Atoc tried to calm her father down. He was still trying to get past the guards, but her questions seemed to bring him out of his anger.

"He's going to destroy our village." Pacha sighed sadly, as he began to guide his daughter out of the palace.

"What?!" Atoc yelled. "Where are we going to live?"

"I don't know sweetie. I don't know."

Though they were heading home with heavy hearts, they decided to soften the blow with presents for the children. They had no enthusiasm when they bought a doll for Chaca, or the stuffed llama for Tipo. Atoc managed to make her father smile, when she found a beautiful bracelet for Chicha.

They were so upset over the news that they had to bring back that neither of them noticed the extra sack that fell onto the cart as they were leaving the city.


	2. Chapter 2

Back in the village, Tipo and Chaca were still awake and waiting on their father and older sister to return from the capital. Their mother, Chicha was measuring their heights on the door frame.

"Mom! Mom! I think I'm still growing! Measure me again!" Tipo exclaimed loudly, bouncing around.

"All right, Tipo. Stand still and let's see." The very pregnant woman said, humoring her young son.

"Mom, you and I both know that it's impossible for him to have grown in the last five minutes. Isn't it?" Chaca asked, her know it all tone changing to confusion, since she wasn't sure.

"Look how much you've grown." Chicha said, marking a new line in the door frame above her son's ponytail.

"What? Tipo, get out of the way. It's my turn again. Measure me." Chaca tried to push her younger brother out of the way but their attention was pulled elsewhere when Tipo saw the two missing family members returning.

"Dad and Atoc are home!" His eyes widened in excitement, as he and his sister bounded down the steps to greet their returning family, laughing as they went.

"Hey! Come here." Pacha exclaimed, catching Chaca and Tipo as they leaped into his arms. Chicha slowly stood up from her crouched position in the doorframe, almost losing her balance a couple of times, as she watched her husband reunite with his youngest children.

"Dad! I ate a bug today!" Tipo told Pacha, stealing the soft brown hat from off of his head.

"Oh! Was Mom baking again?" Atoc asked, tickling the little boy. "Don't tell her I said that." She winked at her younger siblings, with a grin on her face.

"I heard that." Atoc's eye's widened and her grin fell to a shocked face, before turning and giving her adoptive mother an apologetic grin. "Okay, everybody, move aside." Chicha patted her swollen stomach before continuing. "Lady with a baby comin' through."

Pacha raised his two youngest up into the air, one in each hand, as he kissed his wife.

"Dad! Dad! Dad! Look at how big I am." Tipo and Chaca jumped out of their father's hands, the hat flying off of the boy's head as he fell. Pacha was able to catch it before it fell too far, as he watched the kids run back to the house, Atoc following close behind.

"We were all measured today." Chicha explained, as Chaca grabbed her father's hand in an attempt to make her father move faster.

"Oh." Pacha and Atoc said, their tone showing their understanding.

"I'm going through a growth spurt. I'm as big as you were when you were me." Tipo exclaimed, excited, pointing to the old line from when his father was a child.

"Mm-hmm. Sure are." Pacha crouched beside the door to see the new marks on the door frame. Chaca, not wanting to be out done by her brother, decided to show off her new loose tooth.

"That's not as impressive as my loose tooth." The girl ran around her brother to show off her tooth wiggling in her mouth. "See?" she asked, then proceeded to make the tooth wiggle.

"I bet that's going to come out soon!" Atoc exclaimed, scooping up her sister to hug her.

"Okay, okay, you two. Our deal was that you could stay awake until Daddy came home. Now say good night." Chicha reminded the children, knowing they needed to go to bed soon. The two children gasped and turned to their father.

"Dad, do we have to?" They didn't want to go to sleep. They wanted to hear all about the capital and the palace and the Emperor. They had been waiting so long to find out what it was like; they couldn't stand to wait until the morning to hear it. So, they gave their father the cutest, saddest look they could, making their eyes as big as they could, to try and stay up just a little bit longer. But Pacha knew exactly how to get them to go to bed.

"No, you two can stay up." Chicha looked at her husband as he stood, surprised that he was going to let them, at least until she caught on to what he was doing. "We're just gonna be sittin' here tellin' each other how much we love each other. Right, honey?" The two adults made kissy faces at each other, which was enough to gross out the two youngest members of the family.

"Good night." The children said hurriedly, before running off into the house.

"I'm going to go start unpacking the stuff from the cart." Atoc said, heading back down towards the cart, allowing the adults to talk.

* * *

Atoc managed to lead Misty, their llama down to her stable, before her father showed up. He seemed visibly frustrated. She didn't know how to comfort him. She wanted to say that everything would be alright, but she didn't know that it would be. So she sat beside him and leaned onto his shoulder, like she did as a child, to let him know she was there for him.

Pacha appreciated the company of his daughter, but like he'd told his wife, he was tired from the trip, so he got up off of the bench to begin unpacking the cart while Atoc began to unhook Misty from the cart.

Pacha walked past the back of the cart, but stopped when he saw a brownish shack begin to wiggle. He didn't remember buying anything that wiggled. Atoc would have told him about buying something that was alive.

"Huh?" He opened the sack, wondering if someone accidentally put their purchase on his cart. The contents surprised him. There was a dark colored llama, which looked like he'd been hit on the head. "Whoa. Where'd you come from, little guy?" He reached out towards the llama and received a shock when the llama spoke.

"No touchy." The words were slurred, but understandable.

"Demon llama!" The village leader fell backwards away from the talking creature, scared for his life, and the lives of his family.

"Demon llama? Where?" The talking llama looked around and came face to face with Misty, making him, the other llama and Atoc scream. Atoc fell away from the llamas and the darker llama ran away, on two legs, from Misty and past Pacha. "Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!" He screamed before tripping and tumbling into the wall. "Ow! Ow, my head."

"Okay, demon llama. Just take it easy. I mean you no harm." Pacha talked slowly waving his empty hands around, hoping to come off as non-threatening. Atoc was behind him, peaking around his shoulder, wanting to know what was happening, but also frightened by the talking llama.

The llama squinted at Pacha, confused, "What are you talking about..." Then a look of recognition crossed his face. "Oh, wait, I know you." The llama rolled over to stand up right. "You're that whiny peasant."

Pacha gasped, the pieces coming together. "Emperor Kuzco?"

"Wait, _that's_ the emperor?" Atoc whispered. Her father nodded, mouth agape.

"Yeah." Kuzco was annoyed with the dumb peasant in front of him. Who could forget the emperor? "Who do you think you were talkin' to?"

"Uh," Pacha moved forward, Atoc still behind him, "how did... Um" Pacha tried to figure out how to explain to the young man that he was a llama. "You don't look like the emperor."

"What do you mean I don't look like the emperor?"

"Um…" Pacha was trying to think of a way to break the news to the emperor turned llama. "Do this..." The older man wiggled his fingers back and forth. The emperor looked unamused but lifted his hoof to mimic the gesture anyway.

"What is this, some kind of little game you country folk like to..." He noticed his hand wasn't a hand. Instead there was a hoof! "It can't be!" he looked around wildly, before noticing the well. He ran over to it, hoping that what he feared wasn't true. "My face! My beautiful, beautiful face!" He sat on the side of the well, pulling at the side of his face crying.

"Okay, okay, okay." Pacha approached he distressed man, llama, trying to calm him down. "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"I'm an ugly, stinky llama!" The emperor continued to cry.

"Oh, come now." Atoc moved closer and crouched next to her father. "You aren't that ugly of a llama." She was trying to help but the vain emperor only whined harder.

"Wait, okay, Your Majesty. Shh." Pacha was trying to keep the crying llama from waking up any of the village, because he certainly couldn't explain this to anyone.

"Llama face!"

"What happened?" Kuzco slapped himself out of his shock at the village chief's question.

"I'm tryin' to figure that out, okay?" The llama struggled to stand on his hind legs, not used to having to walk on all fours, only to fall over with a hysterical laugh. "I can't remember. I can't remember anything." Neither the father nor the daughter knew what to do as Kuzco floundered on the ground. "Wait a minute. I remember you." Kuzco pointed at the man, their meeting earlier coming back to him. "I remember telling you that I was building my pool... where your house was, and then you got mad at me." His front hooves came to his face in shock. "Oh! And you turned me into a llama!"

"What? No, I did not." Pacha was offended at the accusation. He would never do that to anyone, granted he had no idea how to turn anyone into a llama, but he wouldn't even if he could.

"Yes, and then you kidnapped me." The emperor continued to yell accusations.

"Why would I kidnap a llama?" The point was valid, and poked a hole in the emperor's line of thought, but the angry llama wasn't swayed.

"I have no idea. You're the criminal mastermind, not me."

"What?" Pacha was baffled by the argument, and so was Atoc, who had been listening shocked. But at the criminal mastermind argument she began to laugh.

"You're right. That's giving you way too much credit." The emperor decided that he was right, this peasant had turned him into a llama for revenge. Time to plan how to become his beautiful self again. "Okay. I have to get back to the palace. Yzma's got that "secret lab." I'll just snap my fingers and order her to change me back." Now that he was needed Pacha became the focus of the ruler's attention again. He grabbed onto the fence and began to shakily move toward the forest, and his palace. "Hey, you. No time to waste. Let's go." Pacha didn't move, neither did Atoc. They stood and watched the llama stumble his way down the fence. When Kuzco realized that nobody was following him, he called back over his shoulder. "Hey, tiny, I want to get out of this body. Wouldn't you? Now let's go."

An idea struck Pacha. "Build your summerhouse somewhere else." His demand was said with finality and authority. If the emperor wanted help so badly, he would have to bargain for it.

"You wanna run that by me again?" Kuzco wasn't used to people not listening to him. He was the emperor, everyone was supposed to listen to him. His word was law.

"We can't let you go back unless you change your mind... and build your summer home somewhere else." Atoc spoke with the same tone as her father. She had been trained to handle situations of conflict, just in case her father didn't have a son and her husband was out when someone needed help.

"I got a little secret for you. Come here." He beckoned the two villagers closer, though Atoc hung back further than her father did, as she was cautious. "No, closer." The pair moved closer. "I don't make deals with peasants!" He screamed at the two, Pacha having been closer had a ringing in his ear.

"Then I guess we can't take you back." Atoc crossed her arms defiantly and stared at the llama. Her father wiggled a finger in his ear to rid himself of the ringing he heard, and copied her pose.

"Fine. I don't need you." Kuzco began to walk off toward the forest, his legs still shaky even when he walked on four legs. "I can find my own way back."

"I wouldn't recommend it." Pacha slid in front of the proud llama, trying to warn him of the dangers that would await him. "It's a little dangerous if you don't know the way."

"Nice try, pal." Kuzco didn't believe him, thinking it was a scheme to keep him in the village, and kept walking.

"No, really. I'm telling you..." the emperor began to sing loudly to block out the warnings, "there are jaguars and snakes and quicksand." Atoc watched her father try to save the stupid emperor from walking straight to his death by the man wouldn't listen.

"I'm not listening." He walked down the path towards the jungle.

"He's not kidding." Atoc cupped her hands around her mouth to help project her voice, "Listen, you cannot go in there."

"Ow! Still not listening." But Kuzco wouldn't listen. He'd been raised to believe that everything he did was right and that nothing would harm him. He thought he knew the way back home, despite never having left the capital before.

"Aw, you..." Pacha gave up trying to warn the stubborn llama. "Fine. Fine. Go ahead." He yelled after the man, before mumbling to himself. "If there's no Kuzco, there's no Kuzcotopia. Takes care of my problem."

Atoc watched the emperor turned llama walk into the woods. She knew he was going to get lost and in trouble. She knew he was going to need help, and maybe if they helped him he would consider moving his summer home to a new hill top.

"Dad, you aren't really going to let him die out there, are you? I mean he's selfish, but he doesn't deserve to die in the jungle just for that." Pacha turned around to look at the forest. His guilt at leaving the man to fend for himself getting to him.

Pacha sighed, knowing his daughter was right. He couldn't leave the emperor to face the dangers of the jungle alone.

"Go tell your mother that we're going back to the capital, I'll put Misty up and then we'll go after him."

Atoc smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek, before she gathered up the presents from the back of the cart and ran up to the house, leaving her father staring after her.


	3. Chapter 3

The emperor had no doubt in his mind that he could find his way home, he was the emperor after all. The fact that he'd rarely been out of the palace on his own didn't even cross his mind, and he became hopelessly lost.

After being scared by a squirrel, who offered him an acorn, Kuzco threw the acorn back at the squirrel yelling, "Hit the road, Bucky" before walking off. Only to fall down a hole.

"Ow!" exclaimed the emperor after he landed with a thud on the ground. "Huh? Huh? Huh? Uh-oh." Looking around the poor llama shocked to find himself in the middle of a group of sleeping jaguars. Bucky scampered down the trees to where the llama was.

The squirrel was not happy about his gift being thrown back in his face, so he made a balloon llama, then grabbed one of the spikes off the tree root, threatening to pop the balloon and wake the jaguars.

"No, no. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, don't." The emperor pleaded, not really feeling like being mauled by jaguars, but the squirrel popped the balloon anyway. Surprisingly, the burst didn't wake the sleeping cats. "Ha!" Kuzco mocked loudly, waking the cats.

He too off running through the underbrush, the angry cats on his tail. It no longer mattered if he was going in the right direction, he just needed to survive.

"No!" Kuzco looked back at the cats as he ran, only to get his long neck caught on a tree branch. He spun around before landing on the back of one of the cats that was chasing him. The jaguar was not happy with his hitchhiker and dug his paws into the dirt to stop, throwing the emperor off his back and threw several bushes. Kuzco rolled to a stop on the outcropping of a cliff. The jaguars closed in on him before he could get away.

"You killer jaguars..." Kuzco backed up as far as he could, but there wasn't much room and his back hoof hit the edge of the cliff. "Whoa!" The emperor closed his eyes, not believing that he was about to die, when a cry came from above him. He looked up to see the peasant swinging down on a vine. It took the emperor a moment to recognize the man, but when he did he turned back to the llamas with a smug look on his face. Until the peasant swung right past him.

But the peasant swung back, this time managing to grab the llama. The emperor screamed when he was suddenly snatched off the cliff. He didn't even notice that there was a young girl clinging to the back of his savior.

"Don't worry, Your Highness." Pacha assured, "We got ya. You're safe now." Which would have been better if the trio didn't immediately smack into a dead tree trunk that was sticking out. The vine snapped and wrapped around the trunk, securing the three to the trunk.

"Maybe I'm just new to this whole rescuing thing, but this, to me... might be considered kind of a step backwards, wouldn't you say?" was Kuzco's condescending reply to his rescue.

"No, no, no. It's-It's okay." Pacha tried to make it seem better. "This-This is all right. We can figure this out."

"Yeah," Atoc chimed in, "or would you rather be down there with the jaguars who wanted you for a midnight snack?" Any retort that Kuzco had was cut off by the cracking of the wood as the branch bent under the weight.

"I hate you." Deadpanned Kuzco before the rotten tree gave way.

"No!" Pacha screamed. Atoc would have screamed but she was too shocked to see the river below rushing up to meet them.

The tree hit a couple of cliffs, before rolling into the river. Atoc knew they were going to be bruised later.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Each hit the log took on the way down was punctuated by the emperor's exclamations of pain.

The log rolled into the river, submerging completely for a moment scaring the passengers, before it popped back out, allowing them to catch their breath. The log continued down the rapidly moving water, smashing into rocks as it went. Eventually it ended up in calmer water, with the heads of its unwilling passengers above the water.

"I don't know about you two," Kuzco deadpanned, "but I'm getting all funned out."

Pacha was unamused by the emperor's attitude, but then he spotted a terrifying sight. "Uh-oh." The older man muttered.

"Please no…" Atoc whispered to herself. Kuzco heard them both.

"Don't tell me." The emperor was straight faced, his brain going to the worst-case scenario. "We're about to go over a huge waterfall."

"Yep." Pacha affirmed.

"Sharp rocks at the bottom?"

"Most likely." Atoc gulped.

"Bring it on."

The log went over the falls, a shot of "BOYAH!" could be heard, along with the screams from Atoc. The log broke apart, leaving debris floating in the water and the passengers struggling to get to air.

Pacha was the first to surface, the impact making him slightly disoriented. He looked around, trying to find his daughter and the emperor. The llama floated to the surface beside him before sinking back down. The older man dove down to save Kuzco and drag him to shore. He then looked out over the water for his daughter and saw her holding on to the largest section of the broken log, floating steadily towards shore. The village chief turned his attention back to the unconscious llama in front of him. Pacha pressed his ear to the llama's chest to make sure that his heart was still beating, and upon hearing it he began to try to wake the llama.

"Your Highness. Your Highness, can you hear me?" Pacha lifted the emperor's ear, trying to wake him, but it didn't work. "Oh, boy. Come on, breathe. Breathe!" Pacha tried slapping the llama, but he still didn't wake. There was only one option left. "Oh. Why me?" Pacha turned the emperor's head and opened his mouth. The llama's tongue stuck straight up for a moment, making Pacha flinch back, but the man put aside his dignity. "All right." He leaned toward the unconscious llama, prepared to blow air back into the water filled lungs.

Only to have said llama wake up as he was leaning down.

Both men screamed and scrambled away from each other. Atoc, who had been slowly paddling her was to shore, watched with her mouth agape.

"Dad…" she gasped, "did you just almost kiss a llama?" This comment made the two men look at each other. Then they both made a noise indicating their disgust and flinch away.

Kuzco gargled water, trying to clean his mouth from the almost kiss he shared with the village chief. He did not want to kiss a man.

"For the last time, it was not a kiss." Pacha insisted, yet again. The man and his daughter were sitting near a small pile of wood, and Pacha was trying to get a fire started. Atoc was soaked to the bone and shivering in the cooler evening air.

"I don't know dad," Atoc teased through her shivers and chattering teeth, "it kinda looked like a kiss from where I was floating." Pacha shot her a look that said he was not amused with her antics.

Kuzco finished gargling and spit out the water before chiming in. "Well, whatever you call it," he spit again, this time putting out the fire that had started, earning a glare from Atoc, "it was disgusting. And if you would've done what I ordered you to do in the first place..." Kuzco marched around the impromptu camp site, "we all could've been spared your little kiss of life." He shook the water out of his hair, putting the fire out again, making Pacha groan. Kuzco found a spot a little way off to lay down, where he began to stack rocks. "But now that you're here, you will take me back to the palace. I'll have Yzma change me back, and then I'll start construction on Kuzcotopia." He stuck a leaf flag in the small pile of rocks with a "Yeah."

Pacha laughed a little before composing himself. "Oh, yeah. Okay, now look... I think we got off on the wrong foot here." Pacha went back to trying to start a fire. Kuzco hummed and picked up Pacha's poncho using it to dry his head off. "I just think if you really thought about it... you'd decide to build your home on a different hilltop." Kuzco threw the poncho behind him, and it landed on the fire, putting it out for the third time. Atoc growled to herself, her patience reaching its limit.

"And why would I do that?" Kuzco clearly didn't believe the chief, if he wanted something he got it, that's how it worked.

"Because..." Pacha reined in his temper and took a breath, "deep down, I think you'll realize that you're forcing an entire village" Atoc took the poncho out of her father's hands and hung it on the branch next to her rusty orange poncho, "out of their homes just for you."

"And that's…" Kuzco dragged out the 's' sound, as if he was trying to figure out the rest of his sentence, "bad?"

"Of course it is." Atoc spat out, still struggling to control her temper. "We'll have to find a whole new place to live and up root our lives. Some of the people have lived there for their whole lives." Kuzco was shocked by how bluntly this girl had responded, people never talked to him like that.

"Uh, what she means is nobody's that heartless." Pacha tried to cover his daughter's harsh words, this was still the emperor after all.

Kuzco hummed and nodded his head, as if he was thinking it over. "Now take me back," was the harsh demand that followed. Atoc threw her hands in the air, mumbling to herself that he was hopeless, before working on getting the fire started.

"What? Wait, wait. How can you be this way?" Pacha had never met anyone so selfish in all his life. "All you care about is building your summer home and filling it with stuff for you." Pacha's temper was starting to show.

"Uh, yeah. Doy. Me. Everyone else in the kingdom gets it." Kuzco seemed to believe that this was a reasonable explanation.

"I don't get it either" Atoc chimed in, sitting over by a fire, that the emperor hadn't managed to put out.

"You two are the only one that doesn't seem to be with the program."

"You know what?" Pacha was done, he was tired of arguing with the selfish teenager. "Someday, you're gonna wind up all alone and you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

"Thanks for that." Kuzco doubted that. He was never alone. There were hundreds of people that worked in the palace, and eventually he'd end up picking a bride. "I'll log that away. Now, for the final time," Kuzco tapped the older man with his hoof "I order you to take me back to the palace."

"Looks to me like you're stuck out here" Pacha stood, done with the argument, "because unless you change your mind, we're not taking you back." Pacha walked over and sat next to his daughter, enjoying the warmth of the fire she's started.

"Because unless you change your mind, I'm not taking you back. Me, me, me. Huh?" Kuzco mocked Pacha, using a whiney voice to repeat the man. Then he spotted a small rock by his hoof, which he then threw at the man. Pacha turned to glare at the llama, surprising Kuzco who proceeded to deny throwing anything. "What? I didn't do anything. I didn't... Somebody's throwing stuff. What's going on?" Kuzco then walked away, to lay back down by his pile of stones.

"He's never gonna change his mind." Pacha mumbled to himself, but Atoc heard and placed her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze, before leaning onto his shoulder and closing her eyes, exhaustion hitting her hard.

Across the camp Kuzco mumbled to himself. "How am I ever gonna get out of here?" Finally realizing the position that he was in.

As night dragged on and it got colder and colder, Pacha and Atoc put their ponchos back on to keep warm, but Kuzco shivered as he slept, not used to the chilly night air. Atoc, feeling bad for snapping at the llama earlier, granted she'd been cold and wet and he was being a brat, took pity on the llama and draped her poncho over his back.

Kuzco's eye's snapped open at the warmth, the poncho was warm from the fire, and looked at the back of the retreating girl. She snuggled under her father's poncho and shared it with him for the rest of the night. Kuzco realized that she'd given him her source of warmth, that if her father hadn't been there she'd end up being cold for the rest of the night, and that made him feel guilty. She was being nice to him and all he'd been was rude and selfish.

* * *

"Dad, Atoc, look out!" Tipo screamed as he woke, his heart racing in fear from his nightmare.

"Tipo, what is it?" Chicha asked as she climbed the stairs, candle in hand, having head her son's shout.

"I had a dream that Dad and Atoc were tied to a log and was careening out of control" the boy explained has his mom sat on his bed, "down a raging river of death!"

"All right, all right, it's okay." Chicha needed to calm him down, after all it was just a dream. "Shh."

"It was awful!" He was worried that something may have happened to his dad and oldest sister, he didn't want them to be hurt.

"It's okay, it's okay." Chicha didn't want Tipo to wake up Chaca, or worry. Pacha and Atoc were just going to go back to the capital, nothing bad was going to happen. "Tipo, calm down. It was just a dream. Your dad's fine. Atoc's fine. They just went back to see the emperor."

"Oh." That calmed the boy down. "Like you told him to, 'cause you're always right."

"That's right."

"Well, in my dream, Dad had to kiss a llama." Chaca chimed in, hanging down from the top bunk, all the noise having woken her up.

"Yeah, like that would ever happen." Tipo said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"It could." The girl argued back.

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

Chicha smiled at their banter. "Good night, you two."

"Yeah-huh. Night, Mom."

"Nuh-uh. Night, Mom."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

* * *

The next morning was misty and grey. Pacha and Atoc were by the water, splashing water on their faces to help them wake up when Kuzco approached them.

"Uh, hey." Kuzco walked over, Atoc's poncho in his mouth. "Thanks." He held it out to the girl, not looking her in the eye. Atoc looked at the poncho for a minute.

"Oh." She was a little surprised that he'd returned it, instead of just leaving it on the ground. "You're welcome." She took it off the out stretched hoof.

"Feels like wool." Atoc's mouth twitched upwards and she glanced at her father. Was the emperor making _small talk_ with her?

"Yeah, it is."

"Alpaca?" Kuzco finally looked at the father and daughter.

"Yep." Atoc nodded, smiling as she remembered having to get the wool, that had been a trial.

"Oh, yeah, I thought so." Kuzco paused for a second before adding "It's nice."

"Thanks," Atoc beamed, "I made it. Actually, it's the first one I made completely by myself."

"Oh, you knit?"

"Crochets." Atoc corrected. "My mom taught me."

"Crochets? Nice." Kuzco nodded, impressed.

"Thanks."

There was an awkward moment where the silence was only broken by the croaking of a frog.

"So," Kuzco broke the almost silence, "So, I was thinking that when I got back to the city, we'd, uh... I mean, there's lots of hilltops, and maybe I might, you know, I-I might..." The sentences were faltering, obviously the emperor wasn't used to apologizing or attempting to apologize, but the pair listening got the picture.

"Are… you saying… you've changed your mind?" Pacha almost couldn't believe it.

"Oh, well, I-I..." Kuzco didn't confirm it, but he also didn't deny it.

"Because you know that means you're doing something nice for someone else." Atoc pointed out, a small smile on her face. Kuzco rather like her smile, it made her eyes crinkle up and it was cute.

"No, I know that. I know." He responded, nonchalantly.

"And you're all right with that?" Pacha double checked.

"Yes." Kuzco thought that would have been obvious, but both villagers made a face of disbelief. Pacha got close to the llama's face, trying to judge if he was lying or not. "What?

Then Pacha stuck out his hand. Kuzco went to shake it, but Pacha moved it saying, "Don't shake unless you mean it." He returned his hand to it's original position, a hard look on his face. Kuzco shook the chief's hand after a moment of hesitation, causing both villagers to smile. "All right." Pacha and Atoc both slipped their poncho's on and stood, "Let's get you back to the palace." The pair turned to start walking, then Pacha turned slightly. "Oh, by the way, thanks."

"No," drawled the emperor, a tone like he'd won something in his voice, "thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

The trio was getting close to the palace after walking all day. Atoc had been talking to her father for most of the walk, but every now and then she'd ask Kuzco a question. He was starting to grow on her.

She'd realized that everything he'd ever wanted had just been given to him. He'd never had to work a day in his life, that's why he'd ended up so spoiled and selfish. She hoped that this experience had taught him that not everything was that simple, that people had to work for what they got.

They reached a bridge, from which the palace could be seen, meaning that they were close.

"Okay. Once we cross this bridge, it's only an hour to the palace." Pacha told the emperor, excited to be so near to saving his village.

"Good, because believe it or not, I think I need a bath." Kuzco had been sweating all day, not used to the hot wool that covered his body. He also wasn't used to walking for as long as he had, everything was brought to him, or he only had to walk down the hall to get to what he wanted.

"I believe it." Atoc muttered from the back of their line. The bridge scared her a bit, it was old and very unstable. She didn't really want to walk across it, scared she was going to fall into the gorge below. When her and her father had gone to the palace they'd taken the longer way, since the cart wasn't able to go across the bridge. Oh, how she wished they had gone the long way.

"What was that?" Kuzco turned his head to look back at the girl, a little surprised to she her not right behind him.

"Nothing." She smiled like she was innocent, but the emperor had heard what she said. He was going to ask why she wasn't crossing when Pacha screamed, the boards beneath his feet breaking. He was only saved by the ropes that held the bridge up.

"Whoa! Kuzco!"

"Dad!" Atoc lurched forward, wanting to help, but her father shook his head to tell her to stay where she was, not wanting her to break through a board and fall.

"Kuzco!" Pacha called again, as the emperor thought for a moment.

"Yeah?" The llama stuck his head in the hole in the boards, already knowing what the villager wanted, and what he was going to do.

"Quick, help me up!" Pacha begged. Kuzco hopped over the hole, ready to go back to the palace.

"No. I don't think I will." He threw his answer back over his shoulder.

"You're gonna leave me here?" Pacha knew the boards wouldn't hold him forever. Atoc might be able to help him up, but then she also might fall through the boards.

"Kuzco!" Atoc was astonished. She thought he had _some_ good in him, he had agreed to spare her village after all, but this was just cruel.

"Well, I was gonna have you imprisoned for life, maybe make your daughter a palace maid, since she's nice to look at," Kuzco looked down through the hole again, being completely honest with the man for possibly the first time, "but I kind of like this better, and I can still make your daughter one of the maids."

"I thought you were better than that!" Atoc cried. "I thought that maybe you were learning to be better! But you're just a selfish brat!" Her words cut through Kuzco, but he couldn't figure out why. Perhaps it was because he was the emperor and everyone was supposed to love him, but that didn't really feel right.

"Oh, come on." He glanced up at the girl on the cliff, only to see her eyes full of unshed tears. He decided that she looked better smiling, but then shook that thought away. "I had to say something to get you to take me back to the city." He looked back down at the dangling man, mostly to taunt him but also so he didn't have to see the look on Atoc's face.

"So," Atoc's voice had a broken quality to it, "all of it was a lie?" She had grown fond of the llama, he had seemed nice, a little stubborn, but nice.

"Well, yeah. No, wait." Kuzco paused for just a second. "Uh, yeah, yeah. It all was a lie. Toodles." He began to leave again, only for the man below the bridge to yell at him again.

"We shook hands on it!" Kuzco had reached the other side of the bridge, but he couldn't let Pacha get the last word, so he went back.

"You know," Kuzco stuck his neck down through the hole, "the funny thing about shaking hands is you need hands." He held out his hooves to prove a point. "Okay. Buh-bye." He took one step, ready to finally leave, when the board under him broke, leaving him in the same situation as Pacha.

"Kuzco!" Atco shouted. She might be angry at him, but he didn't deserve to fall to his death.

"Are you okay? Are you all right?" Pacha asked concerned, well maybe only a little concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm all right." Kuzco was in shock. Things like this didn't happen to the emperor. Now he had to be saved by a girl, if she would ever set foot on the bridge.

"Good!" Pacha punched the llama right in the face, making him spin around in the ropes. "That's for going back on your promise!"

Kuzco responded immediately with a swift kick. "Yeah. That's for kidnapping me and taking me to your village, which I'm still gonna destroy, by the way." He laughed to himself, spinning around in the ropes, only to see Pacha about to retaliate. "No touchy." Pacha headbutted the llama into the opposite cliff.

"Why did I risk my life for a selfish brat like you? I was always taught that there was some good in everyone, but, oh, you proved me wrong."

"Oh, boo-hoo. Now I feel really bad. Bad llama." Kuzco sarcastically slapped his cheek, only serving to make the man across from him angrier.

"I could've let you die out there in that jungle, and then all my problems would be over."

"Well, that makes you ugly and stupid."

"Let's end this." Pacha's patience had reached an end. He was ready to skin the llama and make a rug.

"Ladies first."

The two swung at each other punching, kicking, biting, and pulling. Atoc could only watch from the relative safety of the cliff. Then the creaking of would caught her attention, as well as the attention of the two men. The bridge collapsed, leaving Atoc unable to help, and the two men falling down the gorge below, bouncing off rocks and each other as they went. Until they reached the bottom and were stuck at the narrow bottleneck back to back.

"Are you okay?!" Atoc called down, but it barely reached their ears so she got no response.

"What are we gonna do?" Kuzco cried. "What are we gonna do? We're gonna die! We're gonna die! That's it for me!" While the emperor panicked, Pacha was looking for a way out of their terrible situation.

Hanging above them was a rope that had been part of the bridge. If they could get to it, they could climb their way back up. But they had to get there first.

"No, we're not. Calm down. I have an idea." Pacha put his feet on the wall of the gorge, preparing to work his way up. "Give me your arm." He linked one are with Kuzco. "Okay, now the other one. When I say go, push against my back and we'll walk up the hill. Ready? Go." Kuzco was not ready, but Pacha pushed against the llama anyway, crushing him against the rock.

"Ow! You did that on purpose." Kuzco pushed back, shoving the village chief harder than necessary as his petty revenge.

"No, I didn't!" Pacha stopped himself from getting mad, knowing that he needed the emperor's help to survive. "Now, we're gonna have to work together to get out of this, so follow my lead. Ready?" Pacha pushed back, gently this time, so that they could start their walk up the gorge. "Right foot."

"Who's right? Your right or-or mine?"

"I don't care. Mine."

"Well, why yours?"

"Okay, your right! Ready?"

"Okay, got it."

"Okay. Right. Left. Right." They began to walk up the steep walls.

"Look, we're moving!" Kuzco was ecstatic that he wasn't going to die anymore. Then he looked down to see the crocodiles waiting below for their meal to fall into the water and screamed.

"Don't look down!" Pacha warned too late. "Now, stay with me. Stay with me. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right!" They reached the point where the gorge got too wide to continue up and were stuck again.

Atoc watched nervously, wishing she was brave enough to climb down the rope and help them up, but she wasn't. She was paralyzed just watching them try to get out of the gorge.

"Now what, genius?" Kuzco was unimpressed with the situation, he thought this was supposed to get them out of the gorge, not get them in an even worse situation.

"Working on it." Pacha looked up at the rope. If he stood he could reach it, which gave him an idea. "Okay, here's the deal. Stretch out your neck, and I'll grab the rope."

"How do I know you won't let me fall after you grab the rope?"

"You're just gonna have to trust me!" Kuzco decided that trying to get the rope was better than waiting for their strength to fail and being eaten, so he pushed Pacha towards the rope.

"You know, it's a good thing you're not a big, fat guy or this would be really difficult." Sarcasm dripped off every word the emperor said as he struggled to hold the larger man up.

"Almost." Pacha's fingers brushed the rope before he got a firm grip on it. "Got it!" He pulled it, only to have the tree branch above them shake, knocking off, and irritating, the scorpions who lived there. "It's stuck."

"Take your time. No hurry here." Kuzco felt something land on him and start moving around. When he looked down very angry scorpions were crawling on his chest, ready to sting. "Scorpions!" He panicked.

"Kuzco!" Pacha managed to grab the llama's tail before he fell to his death, only for him to swing around and get his face stuck in a hole in the wall of the cliff.

"Oh, no!" The branch broke under their weight and the remaining scorpions crawled down Pacha's poncho, scaring the man.

"Huh? Whoa!" He pounded his back into the cliff to crush the arachnids before they stung him. Unfortunately, the pounding on the rock woke up the bats that were sleeping in the cave where Kuzco's face was stuck.

"Huh?" Red eyes opened, scaring the emperor yet again. He wasn't sure how many more scares he could handle. The bats flew out of their hole, pushing Kuzco up with them which dragged Pacha along. The two of them nearly landed on Atoc, who scrambled away from the edge when she saw them flying up towards her.

She was so stunned at how they got back up she just sat on the ground where she had fallen in her haste and stared at their backs.

Pacha and Kuzco looked at each other, stunned. Then started laughing relived to be alive. Only for the ground to start shaking under their feet. Pacha started to sink, as the ground beneath him was breaking off.

"Dad!" Atoc had just gotten him back, he can't die now!

"Look out!" Kuzco grabbed the back of Pacha's poncho and plucked him right out of the air, pulling him to safety. Then watched the falling rock tumble down. Atoc pulled her father into a relived hug, crying a little as everything hit her. "Whooo! Yeah! Oh, look at me and my bad self." Kuzco danced around in victory. "I snatched you right out of the air. 'Oh, I'm a crumbly canyon wall, and I'm taking you with me.' Well, not today, pal. Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Uh-huh."

"You just saved my life." Pacha was still in shock from almost dying several times in a row.

"Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Huh?" Kuzco stopped his dance, realizing that he had just saved this man's life. "So?"

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"That there is some good in you after all."

"Oh, no."

"Admit it."

"Wrong."

"Yes, there is."

"Nuh-uh."

"I think there is."

"Nuh-uh."

"Hey, you could've let me fall.

"Come on. What's the big deal? Nobody's that heartless!" Kuzco realized what he said and tried to cover it up. "Don't read too much into it. It was a one-time thing."

Atoc threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Kuzco's neck, sobbing her thanks into it. He'd save her father's life and, while she still thought he was spoiled, she wasn't angry with him anymore.

Kuzco wasn't sure what to do. He'd never had anyone thank him like this before. After a moment of hesitation, he gently patted her back with his hoof. Atoc managed to compose herself and pulled out of the hug, leaving Kuzco disappointed that it was over and confused at his disappointment.

"Right. Sure." Pacha spoke up after Atoc had pulled herself together. "Well, we better get going. With that bridge out, it's a four-day walk to the palace." Pacha and Atoc turned to continue their journey, and Kuzco was shocked. They were going to help him even after he was just going to leave Pacha hanging there to die? After he admitted that he had planned to have Pacha imprisoned for life?

"What? You mean you're still taking me back?"

"I shook on it, didn't I?" Pacha asked, making a point.

"I'm sticking with him," Atoc grabbed her father's arm to make a point, "until this is all over."

"Well, yeah, uh," Kuzco was baffled at their kindness and ability to forgive him, "but I hope you realize that doesn't change a thing. I'm still building Kuzcotopia when I get back."

"Well, four days is a long time. Who knows? Maybe you'll change your mind." Pacha said optimistically as he began to walk back the way they'd come.

"Uh-huh." Kuzco didn't believe the man, he wasn't going to change his mind. He almost never changed his mind. "Four days. What are the chances of you carrying me?"

"Not good."

"What are the chances that I can ride on your back?" Atoc asked. Kuzco was thankful he was covered in wool because the girl couldn't see him blush when she asked that question.

"Not good." Kuzco's answered mirrored Pacha's and Atoc laughed. She was perfectly happy walking, she'd grown up walking everywhere so this was no problem for her, she didn't need someone to carry her around.


	5. Chapter 5

"Low blood sugar, huh?" Pacha made conversation as he carried the llama through the jungle.

"Yeah. It's a curse." Atoc giggled, not believing the lazy llama.

"Well, as soon as we get something to eat, you're walking the rest of the way."

The trio was headed to find somewhere to eat, since everyone was hungry and Kuzco _apparently_ had low blood sugar.

* * *

Upon arriving at Mudka's Meat Hut they saw a sign saying no llamas were allowed inside. They decided to get creative. Using Pacha's hat and poncho, a flower that Atoc found they tried to make Kuzco look as much like a human woman as they could, though it wasn't the best disguise.

"Welcome to Mudka's Meat Hut home of the mug," the waitress paused when she saw looked at Kuzco, who giggled in a high-pitched voice and flapped an improvised fan in front of his face, "of meat. What'll it be?"

"We'll have three specials. Is that all right, dear? Sweetie?" Pacha asked Kuzco and Atoc respectively. Atoc nodded, afraid that if she opened her mouth she would burst out into uncontrollable laughter and blow the whole plan.

"Oh, whatever you say, pumpkin. You know what I like." Kuzco fluttered his eyelashes, Pacha laughed before turning to the waitress.

"We're on a family vacation."

"Bless you for coming out in public." The waitress was amazed that the couple had managed to have such a normal looking daughter. She took the menus and double checked the order. "So that's three specials."

"And an onion log." Kuzco's voice slipped but he corrected himself with a laugh. "To split." The waitress flashed him a grin, before turning to the kitchen and shouting out their order.

"Ordering! I need three heartburns and a deep-fried doorstop on table 12!"

Pacha, Kuzco and Atoc all burst out laughing once the waitress had gotten far enough way. They couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Okay, so I'll admit this was a good idea." Pacha admitted.

"When will you learn that all my ideas are good ones?" Kuzco leaned back, relaxing and talking in his usual voice once again.

"That's funny," Atoc deadpanned, "because I thought that you going into the jungle by yourself being chased by jaguars, lying to us," Atoc pointed between herself and her father, "to take you back to the palace were all really bad ideas."

"Oh, yeah. Anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude." Kuzco still wasn't quite used to her talking back to him. Usually people just agreed with whatever he said, but he was enjoying the banter.

The waitress walked over, balancing three plates with their food, "Hot and crispy pill bug for the happy family."

Pacha and Atoc took the wooden straw that was provided and smacked the bug, making it uncurl. Steam rose from the underside, making both of their mouths water.

"Oh, boy." Pacha stuck the straw into the bug and slurped up the whole thing, minus the shell of course. Kuzco watched the man disgusted. Atoc ate her food with her fork, though Kuzco was still grossed out by the fact that they were eating bugs. "Oh, here. Let me get that for you." Pacha reached over, hitting Kuzco's bug for him, which put the emperor over his tolerance for gross. He moved out of the booth, his eyes never leaving the bug, as if it was going to start moving again.

"Where are you going?" Atoc questioned between bites.

"I'm just gonna slip into the kitchen and have a word with the chef." Kuzco began to move towards the kitchen, falling to all fours.

"You're gonna get us thrown out." Pacha warned.

"Please. With this disguise," Kuzco leaned on the table and pushed at the curled wool around his head, "I'm invisible." He walked toward the kitchen, a man at the bar saw and watched as he walked by, giving Pacha a grin and a thumbs up once Kuzco was in the kitchen. Pacha just smiled awkwardly and Atoc giggled into her hand.

Pacha and Atoc went back to eating, oblivious to the conversation occurring behind them.

Yzma and Kronk had been wandering around the jungle for ages trying to find Kuzco, but were unsuccessful. Lunch seemed like a good idea.

"We've been walking around in circles for who knows how long. That is the last time we take directions from a squirrel." Yzma rubbed her forehead, a headache forming due to the stress. "I should have done away with Kuzco myself when I had the chance."

The last part caught Atoc and Pacha's attention. Atoc spit out her drink and Pacha started to choke on the pill bug he was eating.

"Oh, you really gotta stop beating yourself up about that." Kronk tried to comfort his boss, who, in her anger, bent her fork so that it was unusable. "Uh-oh. I'll get you another one there, Yzma." Kronk turned to ask for a fork from Pacha. "You using that fork, pal? Hey, don't I know you?"

"I don't think so." Pacha was trying not to let Kronk see his face, just in case the man had seen his face. Atoc turned her head away to look out the window, preventing the large man from seeing her face.

"Wrestled you in high school?"

"Don't remember that."

"No? Metal shop?"

"Uh, no..."

"Oh, I got it. Miss Narca's interpretive dance... two semesters. I was usually in the back because of my weak ankles. Come on, pal." Kronk put his hand on Pacha's shoulder, freaking the panicking man out even more, though Kronk seemed oblivious. "You gotta help me out here."

"Uh, no, look, I-I don't think we've ever met, but, look, we gotta go." Pacha grabbed Atoc's arm pulling her out of the booth with him.

"Don't worry. I'll think of it." Kronk waved and then pointed to his head.

In the kitchen, Kuzco was arguing with the chef over the quality of the food.

"Look, all I know is the food looked iffy. All right? And I'm not the only one that thinks that, I'm sure." The chef was clearly not happy with being told that his food wasn't good.

"Psst! Hey!" Pacha tried to get the llama's attention while Atoc kept her eye on the people trying to kill the emperor.

"So, I'm just checking to make sure that you're gonna take the main course up a notch." The chef was getting increasingly annoyed at the complaining. He tried to get his frustration out by stirring the soup in the pot faster, but it wasn't helping.

Back in the restaurant, Atoc was watching Yzma and Kronk trying to figure out what they wanted to eat, though Yzma didn't seem to like the menu either.

"Is there anything on this menu that is not swimming in gravy?" Yzma asked, annoyed with the menu.

"Hang on. I'll go ask the chef." Kronk put down his menu and started towards the kitchen.

Atoc squeaked and started hitting her father's back. "The big one is coming!" she managed to get out.

In the kitchen, Kuzco was still berating the chef, who was clearly on his last nerve.

"It's a simple question. Is there or is there not," Pacha pulled the llama out of the kitchen, but Kuzco managed to struggle back in to finish his question, "anything edible on this menu?" The chef was not happy. One more comment about his cooking or the menu and he would quit! Atoc was looking out the small window in the kitchen doors.

"He's still coming! We can't go that way!" Pacha gasped at his daughter's words and started pushing Kuzco back through the kitchen.

"Hey, I didn't ask him about dessert yet!" Kuzco said, as he was shoved into the pantry.

"Hey, pal, what's your policy on making special orders?" Kronk asked as he walked into the kitchen, not meaning to irritate anyone, but it pushed the chef over the edge.

"All right, buster, that's it! You want a special order, then you make it! I quit!" The chef threw his hat on Kronk's head, leaving the poor man confused and stuttering.

"Yeah, but I... Hold on." Kronk tried to get the chef's attention but he just kept ranting.

"You know, I try, and I try, but there's just no respect for anyone with vision." The chef pulled out his suitcase and put his tools into it, having made up his mind to go find a job somewhere where people appreciated his cooking. "That-That's it! There's just nothing I can do about it!" He irritated man left Kronk alone in the kitchen, bewildered and with new orders coming in.

"Wait a second. Please don't go.

"Ordering. Three pork combos, extra bacon on the side, two chili cheese samplers..." The waitress called, after ringing the bell to get the cook's attention.

"No, no." Kronk was freaking out, this wasn't his job and the waitress didn't even seem to notice, since she continued to ramble off the order.

"A basket of liver and onion rings, a catch of the day and a steak cut in the shape of a trout. You got all that, honey?" Kronk blinked, he could handle that, it was easy to make food.

"Three oinkers wearing pants, plate of hot air, basket of Grandma's breakfast and change the bull to a gill, got it." Kronk repeated the order back, confident he could make the meals.

In the pantry, Atoc was keeping an eye on what was happening outside through the keyhole in the door.

"What's going on?" The emperor asked, confused as Pacha struggled to open the window behind them.

"There's no time to explain. We gotta get out of here." Pacha whispered, continuing his fight with the wooden board that blocked the window.

Back at her table, Yzma was getting annoyed with how long it was taking Kronk to ask about a special order.

"What is he doing in there?" Yzma got up from the table and headed to the kitchen, where Kronk was putting on the oven mitt and getting ready to be a chef.

In the pantry Pacha finally got the window open. "Come on!" He needed to get the emperor out of the restaurant. These people wanted to hurt him and Pacha didn't want to see that happen, no matter how annoying the boy was. But Kuzco wasn't having it. They came here to get food and he hadn't eaten yet.

"In a minute. I'm still hungry." The cross-dressing llama maneuvered around Atoc, who fell back as he did so. The emperor felt a little bad that girl fell, but he really wanted some food.

"No, Kuzco!" Atoc tried to warn him, but he proceeded back out into the kitchen.

"Okay, I'll make it simple for you. I'll have a spinach omelet with wheat toast. You got it?" Kuzco ordered as he made his way out of the kitchen, not even noticing that the chef was different.

"Can do." Kronk responded, not turning around from the stove as Kuzco walked through one of the doors.

Pacha and Atoc followed the llama, trying not to draw attention to themselves, but as Kuzco walked out one door, the other door opened to reveal Yzma.

"What's taking so long?" She demanded.

Pacha and Atoc dove under the island to keep from being seen.

"Pickup!" Kronk called out the order window.

"Kronk," Yzma could not believe what she was seeing. "What are you doing?"

"Kind of busy here." Kronk didn't answer the question. It was the lunch rush and he had to get all the orders out before people started getting mad.

"Why am I not surprised?" Yzma asked herself, as Kronk reached under the island for a bowl. Atoc squirmed away from the hand, while Pacha grabbed a bowl to give to the man.

Kronk poured the soup into the bowl, and sent another shout through the order window. "Yo! Order's up!"

"Oh, well, while you're at it, make me the special. And hold the gravy!" Yzma needed her food. If Kronk was the one to make it at least she'd get exactly what she wanted. She walked out the exit to go sit back in her booth, only for Kuzco to come back into the kitchen as Kronk finished another order.

"Check. Pickup!"

"You know what? On second thought, make my omelet a meat pie." The emperor had realized that it was closer to lunch than breakfast, so he figured he'd get something more filling than an omelet. Then he went back out the exit door. Pacha and Atoc made a run for the door while Kronk's back was turned.

"Meat pie. Check." Kronk acknowledged the changed order. Then Yzma came back into the kitchen. The two villagers had to hide in plain sight this time. Pacha posed in front of an extra sign, while Atoc crouched behind it. Yzma did not notice.

"Kronk! Can I order the potatoes as a side dish?" She was still more concerned about her food.

"I'll have to charge you full price." Yzma groaned, but accepted it as she walked back out of the kitchen.

Kuzco walked back in, deciding he needed a side with his meat pie. "Hey, how about a side of potatoes, my buddy?"

"You got it." Kronk still didn't turn around as Kuzco left and Yzma opened the other door. "Want cheese on those potatoes?"

"Thank you, Kronk. Cheddar will be fine." She walked back out of the kitchen.

"Cheddar spuds coming up." Kronk confirmed, but Kuzco had walked back in.

"Spuds yes, cheese no." Kuzco did not want cheese on his potatoes, he never had cheese on his potatoes, with that corrected he walked out.

"Hold the cheese." Kronk repeated.

"No, I want the cheese." Yzma walked in then out.

"Cheese it is." Kronk wished this in and out would stop. He needed to focus on cooking the food. Pacha remained frozen in place in front of the sign and could just hear Atoc's giggles at the round and round that was happening.

"Cheese me no likee." Kuzco walked out.

"Cheese out."

"Cheese in!" Yzma shouted on her way through the doors.

"Come on. Make up your mind!"

"Okay, okay, on second thought," Kuzco started, his head poking through one of the doors.

"Make my potatoes a salad." He and Yzma, who had stuck her head through the other door, said at the same time. Yzma was confused by the echo and stuck her finger in her ear to make sure she wasn't hearing things.

Kuzco and Yzma sat back down in their respective booths. Kuzco was sitting staring at the menu. When he put his down, Yzma picked her menu up. Then she laid her back down and Kuzco lifted his back up, then he set it down and stared at the kitchen doors, willing his food to come out faster.

Back in the kitchen, Pacha made sure that Kronk wasn't looking before he got his daughter to start sneaking away. When they exited the kitchen, they're stressed increased as Yzma was so close to looking up and seeing Kuzco. But they each put down their drinks and picked up their menus again.

The waitress that helped them was walking passed and Pacha had an idea.

"Excuse me." Pacha got the woman's attention then pointed out Yzma. "You see that woman over there?" He whispered the last part of his idea to the woman.

"No problem, hon. We do that all the time." She'd been here for too long for any request to really phase her anymore. So, she gathered up the waitstaff and walked over to the table.

Over at her table, Yzma finally looked at the woman across from her and thought there was something strange about her, but she was distracted when people started counting.

 _"One, two, three, four. Happy, happy birthday from all of us to you. We wish it was our birthday so we could party too. Happy, happy birthday. May all your dreams come true. We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too."_ The staff sang, throwing confetti in the air, surprising Yzma and making her scream. They put a sombrero on the unhappy woman's head.

The commotion caught Kronk's attention and he stepped out of the kitchen laughing and stirring something in a bowl. "It's your birthday?"

In all the commotion, no one noticed Atoc bolt for the door or Pacha grab his 'wife' and drag 'her' out. Pacha had to carry Kuzco out of the restaurant and even that was hard because the emperor was struggling so much. Outside the doors Pacha looked around frantically for Atoc. She had found a place for them to talk that was off the main path, and when Pacha saw her he bolted in her direction.

"What are you doing?" Kuzco was not used to being manhandled. He didn't like it and wanted to know exactly why they had to leave before he'd finished, or even started, eating.

"Look, there's two people in there looking for you." Pacha explained in a whisper, trying not to catch the attention of anyone leaving the restaurant.

"What?" Kuzco couldn't understand why Pacha had taken him away from the people that were looking for him.

"A big guy and a skinny old woman." Atoc added, hoping Kuzco knew who they were, but also hoping that he didn't, because they had wanted to get rid of him.

"Wait." Kuzco held up a hoof, that sounded like Yzma and her new bodyguard, what's-his-name, Kronk. "Was this woman scary beyond all reason?"

"Oh, yeah." Atoc shuddered, remembering the woman's face and skin. She looked like a witch out of a folktale that would steal children.

"That's Yzma and Kronk." Kuzco was so happy that they'd come looking for him and wiped the makeup off his face. "I'm saved!"

Pacha grabbed his poncho that Kuzco was wearing, hoping he could convey the danger the emperor was in. "Trust me, they're not here to save you."

But Kuzco didn't seem to listen at all. "They'll take me back to the palace." He kinda mumbled to himself before Pacha let go, not believing what he was hearing. Thanks for your help. You've been great. I can take it from here." Kuzco started to walk back towards the restaurant, ready to go home with Yzma and Kronk, maybe he'd even get Yzma a new job at the palace, after she changed him back of course.

"No, no, you don't understand." Atoc blocked his path, hoping the emperor wouldn't walk straight into his doom, she didn't want to see him hurt and the thought of those two killing him made her panic a little. "They're trying to kill you."

"Kill me?" Kuzco really didn't believe that! "Their whole world revolves around me." He was the ruler of the world, so why would they want to kill him? Everyone was supposed to love him. He just walked around the two peasants, he wanted hands again and now.

"No, I can't let you!" Pacha grabbed Kuzco's neck and tried to pull him back.

"What? Wha..." Kuzco was confused, but then he realized that if he went back to the palace, their village would still get destroyed, maybe they were never going to take him back. They were going to strand him in the jungle! "Oh! Oh, I get it."

"What?" Atoc and her father asked, sharing a look of mutual confusion.

"You don't want to take me back to the palace. You want to keep me stranded out here forever." Kuzco called them out, not knowing how wrong he was.

"No!" Atoc protested. "We wouldn't…"

"This has all been an act and I almost fell for it." Kuzco cut the girl off before she could 'lie' to him again. He really was hurt. He thought that they were friends, or at least becoming friends.

"Will you just listen to me..." Pacha tried to get the emperor to stop his rant abut how they were liars, but Kuzco was mad now. All he knew was that two people he knew from the palace were here looking for him, and these two peasants were trying to stop him from going back with them. He was mad.

"No, no, you listen to me. All you care about is your – your stupid hilltop!" Kuzco yelled.

"What?" Pacha asked, honestly confused.

"You don't care about me. Now, just get out of here. Go!"

"But-But..." Pacha shook his head, trying to protest, while Atoc's eyes started to shine with tears that had started to form. How could he believe that she – they didn't care about him? After they followed him into the jungle and saved him from jaguars, or when her father and him got out of the gorge together, or even sneaking him into the restaurant. She couldn't believe he was so quick to forget all of that.

"Go on! Get out of here!" He wanted them gone, and he never wanted to see them again. He'd happily destroy their village after this.

"Fine!" Pacha shouted. Kuzco turned and ran away as Pacha glared at him.

When Kuzco got around to the front of the restaurant, Yzma and Kronk were coming down the stairs, what a perfect time to join them!

"Oh, this entire mess is all your fault." Yzma grumbled, the sombrero still on her head. Kronk followed behind her, a piece of cake in one hand, to-go good wrapped up in foil shaped like a llama, and a party hat on his head.

"What'd I do?" The large man asked, not sure what he'd done this time.

Neither noticed the llama in a poncho and hat coming up behind them.

"If you hadn't mixed up those poisons, Kuzco would be dead now!" Kuzco popped up, ready to surprise them, when he heard Yzma taking about poisoning him. "There'll be no more diversions until we track that llama down and kill him!" He ducked behind the log, so he wasn't found.

"Said I was sorry. Can't just let it go, not even on your birthday." Kronk followed the cranky woman, who continued to talk about her plan as she got back into her traveling compartment.

"Kuzco must be eliminated. The empire will finally be rid of that useless slug."

"Well, you got a point. Nobody really seems to care that he's gone, do they?" Kronk put the back pack like contraption on and started running through the jungle again.

Kuzco walked out onto the path, watching his would-be murders disappear into the jungle, shocked. Pacha and Atoc were right. He yelled at them and sent them away because he wouldn't listen. He should have known better. Pacha was trying to save his village, and Atoc had never done anything mean to him ever.

"Atoc! Pacha!" Kuzco shouted as he walked back towards the restaurant, in hopes that they hadn't left or gone too far yet. "Atoc! Pacha?" But he found himself alone, and it was all his fault.

Kuzco ended up wandering though the jungle, hoping he could find his way back home or at least to Pacha's village. He wanted to apologize to the man and Atoc. But the more he wandered the more lost he became. He did end up close to the palace during his wanderings, and for a moment he was happy to see his home, before Yzma and Kronk's words ran through his head. Nobody there missed him. So, he turned around and walked away, looking for shelter from the on coming storm. He couldn't find a dry place to sleep so he curled up on a bit of dirt in the pouring rain.

* * *

Kuzco didn't sleep much, the rain saw to that, so when the morning came, he started wandering again, even before the sun had fully come up. He eventually made it to a field of llamas.

He sighed. There was no one in the world that wanted to help him. There was no one in the palace that missed him. He might be better off being a llama for the rest of his life. Kuzco walked down the hill to join the herd of llamas below. When he made it to the pasture, all of them looked at him. He waved trying to be friendly, but all the llamas walked away from him, leaving him to eat grass sadly by himself.

"So, there we were standing on the cliff, and the ground started to rumble." Kuzco perked up when he heard a voice that sounded like Pacha. As he moved towards the sound, the llamas cleared a path, showing him Pacha and Atoc sitting in the field; Pacha was wearing his poncho again, as they'd found it on the road. "And just as it started to go, he grabbed me before I fell. Do you believe that? You know, call me crazy for following this guy all the way out here, but as much as he tries to deny it, I know there's some good in him. Besides, I couldn't just leave him out here all alone. He's a lousy llama. I mean, a really lousy llama."

Kuzco smiled, he was so happy to see his friends. They both stood and walked towards the misfit llama. Kuzco remembered the last thing he'd said to the two and he knew he had to apologize, he felt terrible about the things that he'd said.

"Hey, listen, Pacha, Atoc, you know... what I said to you back at the diner, that-that... I-I didn't really..." Kuzco had never really apologized before, so he wasn't very good at it, but the two villagers understood what he was trying to say. Pacha merely held up a hand to stop his babbling.

"So, you tired of being a llama?" Atoc asked with a sweet smile on her face, happy with the sort of apology. He was sincere even if he didn't know what to say.

"Yes!" cried Kuzco, he really didn't want to eat grass for the rest of his life.

Atoc giggled and Kuzco was glad to hear the sound again. It was becoming one of his favorites.


	6. Chapter 6

The trio decided they needed to regroup as fast as they could so that they could try to sneak back into the palace. They needed a few things, like food if they were going to continue to run around the jungle.

"Okay, we're just gonna stop at the house and get some supplies." Pacha explained to Kuzco as the trio ran back towards the village. Atoc was trailing a little behind the two, her shorter legs not being able to keep up with their longer strides.

"Then we'll be on our way, right?" Kuzco questioned, wanting everything to be clear as possible.

"Right." Atoc called from behind them.

As they ran up the stairs towards Pacha's house, two of the older villagers were playing checkers. They called out to Pacha, having seen his relatives earlier.

"Hey there, Pacha." The man playing with the red pieces called. "Hey, you know, you just missed your relatives."

"My relatives?" Pacha was confused, he wasn't expecting anyone to visit him soon.

"Yeah." The second man answered. "We just sent 'em up to your house."

"What did they look like?" Atoc wheezed, concerned about who was at the house with her family.

"Well, you see," The man moving the black pieces said, "there was this big guy and this older woman who was, uh... How would you describe her?"

"Scary beyond all reason." The first man responded without hesitation.

"Yeah, that's it."

* * *

Yzma and Kronk had arrived at the village only a little while before Pacha, Atoc and Kuzco. Yzma had made up the story that they were Pacha's distant relatives and soon found herself seated at the table while his wife poured her tea.

"So, remind me again how you're related to Pacha?" Chicha was skeptical, to say the least. Pacha hadn't mentioned any relatives coming to visit and he certainly wouldn't have taken off if he'd known they were going to be coming.

"Why, I'm his third cousin's brother's wife's step-niece's great aunt." Yzma replied with an innocent tone and a fake smile, as if she was oblivious to the accusation in the other woman's tone. Before adding, "Twice removed" just in case.

"Uh-huh." Chicha's face showed nothing but disbelief at this woman's story.

"Isn't that right, Kronk?" Yzma hoped her henchman would back her up, but she found him playing with the two children instead.

 _"Ninety-nine monkeys jumpin' on the bed."_ Chaca sang as Kronk jumped.

 _"One fell off and bumped his head."_ Kronk sang along, enjoying his time playing with the children. Yzma was both unamused and unsurprised at his actions.

"You know," Yzma's head snapped back around and the fake smile found its way back to her face when Chicha started talking, "I am so sorry that you had to come all this way but" Yzma interrupted with an 'aw' and a wave of her hand, "as I said to you before, you may recall, Pacha is not here. I'll be sure and tell him you came by." Chicha was ready for this woman and her friend to leave, she was tired of their lies.

"Oh, would you, please? That would be just great." Yzma swung her hands out, knocking over the cup she'd just set on the table. "Oops. Silly me."

"No, no. Allow me." Came the sarcastic reply from the hostess, who proceeded to try and pick up the fallen cup. While the woman was occupied, Yzma dashed into the other room to confer with Kronk.

"She's hiding something." Yzma whispered to her henchman, jumping over the rope with him. "When I give the word, we search the house."

"Okay, but I still have 94 monkeys to go." Kronk turned to see who was going to jump in once Yzma left, and Yzma dashed back into the dining room.

"So, while we're waiting for Paca..."

"Pacha." Chicha corrected.

"Yeah, I... Oh, yes." Yzma was flustered by her mistake but attempted to recover. "Um, perhaps we can have a tour of your lovely home."

"You know, why don't you just come back when Pacha gets home? I'm sure he'd love to show you the..." Over the older woman's shoulder Chicha saw her husband through the window trying to signal her to go to the kitchen. "Uh, excuse me, won't you? I think I left something in the oven."

In the living room, both kids were jumping over their own ropes, with Kronk in the middle moving them. "This is my variation of double Dutch. On the signal, we switch places."

"Kronk, it's time!" Yzma figured that while the mother was distracted would be the best time to search the house.

"Okay." Kronk and the children ran around and Yzma found herself holding the jump ropes in her hand.

* * *

In the kitchen Pacha was explaining most of what had happened to his wife, he decided the more life-threatening parts could wait until Kuzco was back at the palace and human again.

"So, we have to get back to the palace, find the lab and change him back."

"Hi there!" Kuzco popped up in the window, only for Chicha to smack him with the frying pan that she was holding. Atoc was outside the window with Kuzco, having gathered some supplies while her father explained everything.

"Um, that was him." Pacha said, cringing.

"Whoops." Chicha deadpanned looking out the window at the llama on the ground, and then up at Atoc's shocked and amused face.

* * *

In the living room, Yzma had managed to get out of playing jump rope by giving the children each a rope so that they could swing it around themselves. Now she could search the house for Kuzco or any sign of him. Unfortunately, the little boy had decided to follow her as she looked around.

"You know what? I don't believe you're really my great aunt. You're more like my great-great-great..."

* * *

Outside, Chicha was trying to get her husband to leave, if she could keep these people here for long enough her family would have a better head start.

"Go. I'll stall them long enough for you two to get a head start."

"Thanks, honey." Pacha hugged and kissed his wife, wondering how he got lucky enough to have her.

"You have a lovely wife." A still dizzy Kuzco interrupted. "They're both very pretty." Atoc reached back and dragged the dizzy llama with her. "You very pretty too. Both of you."

Atoc blushed felt heat rise up her neck at the comment. she put the 'both' part down to him seeing double, but was glad he though she was pretty. "Thanks, Kuzco."

* * *

Back at the house Tito was still following Yzma around, having not yet expressed how old he thought her to be.

"Great-great-great-great-great..." Yzma had reached her limit with the boy, and gave out a small growl, before snapping.

"All right! Are you through?"

"Great-great aunt." Tito added quickly after the older woman growled at him.

"So, where were we?" Chicha came back in, cheerier than when she'd left the room.

"Listen, sister, we're not leaving until..." Yzma was going to demand to know where they were hiding Kuzco, but Chicha cut her off rather quickly.

"I show you the house. Of course." Chicha pushed the other woman into the house, and away from the door.

* * *

"Hey, was it a good idea to leave your family with those two?" Kuzco asked as the trio ran, having finally stopped seeing double.

"Oh, don't worry. They can handle themselves." Pacha assured him.

"I'm sure they have some plan to stall them." Atoc added giggling. "Knowing my siblings, it will be hilarious and humiliating."

* * *

Chicha had showed Yzma and Kronk right into the one closet with a broken handle. The handle had a habit of falling off whenever it was touched, so locking the duo in there had been rather easy.

"What do you mean, the door is stuck? Try jiggling the handle." Chicha instructed over the sound of her children's giggles.

"There is no handle in here." Yzma called angrily through the hole in the door where the handle was supposed to be.

"There's not?" Chicha's voice was laced with fake concern as she held up the handle. "Are you sure?"

"All right, I've had enough of this." Truth be told, Yzma had reached her limit for the, in her opinion, bumbling peasant family ages ago, but she'd needed information. "Tell us where the talking llama is, and we'll burn your house to the ground."

"Uh, don't you mean "or"?" Kronk asked, concerned for the family.

"Tell us where the talking llama is, **or** we'll burn your house to the ground." Yzma corrected, irritated, and leaned down to the hole in the door.

"Well, which is it?" Chaca asked, Atoc had been teaching her about conjunctions and had stressed how important they were. "That seems like a pretty crucial conjunction."

"That's it, Kronk!" Yzma yelled at her henchman as she moved out of the way, "Break the door down!"

"Break it down? Are you kidding me? This is hand-carved mahogany." There was no way he was going to breakdown such a beautiful door, which probably took days to make.

"I don't care, you fool. Get out of my way. I'll break it down myself." Yzma pushed Kronk out of the way and prepared to throw all her weight at the door. "A-one!"

"Okay, kids," Chicha and her children had been listening outside the door and took that as their que to set their plan in motion, "you know what to do."

"Two!" Yzma called from in the closet.

"Right, Mom!" The two kids said and hurried off to do their parts.

Chicha stuck the handle back in the door and opened it right as Yzma shouted "Three!" and ran out the now open door.

Yzma slipped on the floor, where Tito was buffing it, right through the bottom open half of the door, which Chaca opened, and into the wheelbarrow that had been put in front of the door. The wheelbarrow took off down the hill, where Tito was holding a hive of honey bees up, which Yzma crashed through thus drenching herself in honey. A little further down the hill Chaca stood, holding up a pillow, which covered the honey in feathers when Yzma crashed through it. The woman was very confused, but then the wheelbarrow hit a rock and sent her flying, knocking a piñata out of place.

"Okay, children, on your mark, get set, go!" The teacher let her students go to town, whacking, what she though was, the piñata.

"Stop it, you little brats! Huh?" Yzma spotted llama tracks accompanied by two other sets of footprints heading out of town. She followed the trail, just spotting Kuzco and two peasants hurrying over the ridge of a hill. "Ow! Oh, there they go, Kronk! And... They're getting away!" Yzma cried, trying to free herself from the rope she'd been caught in.

Kronk stepped out of the house, laugh at the scene before him, putting it down to a mildly harmless prank. "Well, I had a great time. Let's not wait until the next family reunion to get together." Chicha honestly like this man, he was a little dim, but very genuine and kind. She just smiled at him and nodded.

"Kronk!" an annoyed cry from Yzma made Kronk hurry, knowing he'd be in trouble for taking so long.

"I, uh... I gotta run." Kronk saluted the family before taking off to get Yzma down.

Once the angry woman was freed, and most of the feathers had been removed, they took off through the jungle after the llama and the peasants.

* * *

Seeing the two would be murderers coming after them sent the trio scrambling to get to the palace the fastest way they could. They tried to stick to cleared areas and places that had roads, but eventually they came to a gorge with no bridge. Atoc used a bow and arrow to launch a rope across the gorge, allowing them to slide their way over. When they looked back, they could see Yzma and Kronk rounding the side of the hill. Kuzco bit the string, breaking it and preventing them from following.

Kronk continued to run at the gorge, pulling a string that released two large wings from the side of the tent. The wings carried them most of the way across the gorge, until lightning struck them, and they fell. That random storm allowed Pacha, Atoc and Kuzco to make it to the Palace and find the 'secret lab' that Yzma had in the palace.

They found two levers, Pacha pulled one and Kuzco fell screaming through the floor into a lagoon of crocodiles.

* * *

"Okay, why does she even have that lever?" Kuzco asked, walking back into the room, kicking a crocodile that was still biting onto his tail.

"Probably for moments like this when someone is trying to break into her lab." Atoc supplied, preparing to pull the second lever.

When she pulled it, the trio were flipped over and dropped into a small car, while an animated voice said, _"Please remain seated and keep your arms and legs in at all times."_ Then the car took off down a tight corkscrew of a track, everyone screaming as they went. At some point the ride threw the lab clothes on to the trio. Pacha was stuck in Yzma's lab coat, while Kuzco and Atoc were both trapped in Kronk's.

"Huh?" Kuzco was confused by the outfit change, while Atoc giggled, her nerves still a little frayed from the ride.

"Well, this is cozy…" she mumbled. But they quickly shed the lab coats and began to search the lab for the right potion, which was not easy since they were all pink.

"What does it look like?" Pacha asked, picking up jars and looking at the labels, before setting them back down.

"I don't know." Kuzco whined, he was hoping there'd be a vial that said, 'Drink Me' or something easy to find, but that hadn't happened. "Just keep looking."

"Over here!" Atoc called, having found, and opened a large owl shaped cabinet only to be faced with hundred of vials filled with pink liquid. "It has to be one of these. Lions, tigers, bears..." She listed off the potions, only to see that the spot for the human potion was empty.

"Oh, my." A voice from behind them said. "Looking for this?" Yzma stepped out of the shadows holding the only human potion.

"No!" gasped Kuzco, as Pacha and Atoc whirled around. "It can't be! How did you get back here before us?" They'd seen the duo fall, so there was no way that they could have made it back, yet here they were.

"Uh..." Yzma went to explain, before realizing that she didn't know either. "How did we, Kronk?"

"Well, ya got me." Kronk said, as he pulled down a map with each group's routes drawn on it. "By all accounts, it doesn't make sense."

"Oh, well, back to business." Yzma shrugged it off, she didn't really care since she'd won.

Kuzco let out a nervous laugh. "Okay, I admit it. Maybe I wasn't as nice as I should have been. But, Yzma, do you really want to kill me?" Kuzco couldn't believe that she was willing to go that far to get the throne, and he really didn't want to die.

"Just think of it as you're being let go." Yzma began to repeat the words that he'd said to her when she'd been fired. "That your life's going in a different direction. That your body's part of a permanent outplacement." Kuzco's face grew more and more horrified with every word she uttered.

"Hey," Kronk cut in, "that's kind of like what he said to you when you got fired."

"I know. It's called a cruel irony," Yzma explained to the man, reaching her limit on his idiotic comments, "like my dependence on you."

"I can't believe this is happening!" Kuzco had reached his limit, he was panicking now. Atoc started to reach over to comfort him, but she couldn't think of any soothing words to offer him. _'Sorry your former employee is trying to kill you'_ didn't really seem like the best way to calm him down at the moment.

"Then I bet you weren't expecting this." Yzma hissed, pulling the hem of her dress up her leg.

"No!" Kuzco screamed, horrified, as he covered his eyes and turned away.

"Aha!" Pacha covered his eyes and waved his hand trying to get the woman to stop.

"Ew!" squealed Atoc, turning all the way around and covering her eyes. Only for Yzma to reveal a knife strapped to her thigh.

"Oh, okay." That was so much better than Kuzco was imagining. They all breathed a sigh of relief, it was only a knife.

"Finish them off." Yzma tossed the knife to Kronk, who had a conflicted look on he face once he caught it. Then he started to talk to himself.

"Uh, where's the other guy?" He pointed from one shoulder to the other. "Yo!" He called looking at his right shoulder annoyed. "Well, Yzma just tossed me this knife and asked me to, you know, take them out. And then this guy popped up and then we waited for you, and quite honestly..." He explained the whole situation to himself, while making various gestures.

Yzma looked back at the trio with a 'what the heck' look on her face as she pointed back at Kronk. The trio responded with shrugs indicating that they didn't know either.

"Kronk!" Yzma called. "Why did I think you could do this? This one simple thing. It's like I'm talking to a monkey. A really, really big stupid monkey named Kronk! And do you want to know something else? I've never liked your spinach puffs. Never!"

Kronk started to tear up, she didn't like his spinach puffs. Kronk looked like he'd had an idea and looked up at the chandelier that was hanging above Yzma's head.

"That'll work." He mumbled, before cutting the rope that was holding it up. Everyone looked horrified when the light came crashing down, but Yzma was not crushed, as Kronk had hoped, she'd fit right through the hole in the middle. "Strange. That usually works."

"And so does this!" Yzma reached over and pulled a lever disguised as a potion, triggering the trapdoor that Kronk was standing on.

"Ah. Should have seen that coming." Kronk muttered to himself just before he fell screaming: "Whoa!"

While she was distracted, Pacha snuck up and snatched the vial from her hand. Only for Yzma to jump on him trying to retrieve it.

"Give me that vial!" She hit the man on the head, and accidentally knocked the potion out of his hand. He threw her off and dove to catch it, managing to grab it out of the air right before it hit the ground. Only for Yzma to jump on his back, digging her bony elbow into it when she landed. Then Kuzco headbutted the woman off his friend and set her flying into the cabinet holding all her potions, as she dropped the one that they needed. Atoc moved to grab the potion as it rolled, and Pacha and Kuzco ran after it too. But Yzma had other ideas.

"Oops," she said, faked innocence lasing her voice as she knocked into the cabinet, scattering the vials across the floor. "Clumsy me. "Which one? Which one?" She sang as they tried to identify the one vial containing pink liquid that they needed from all the other vials of pink liquid on the floor. Yzma pulled to cord to summon the guards. If Kronk wouldn't kill the emperor, the guards could do it. "Better hurry. I'm expecting company." Doors in the wall opened, revealing the half red half blue guards ready to do as Yzma ordered. "Kill them! They murdered the emperor!"

The guards, now enraged, raised their weapons, and charged towards the intruders.

"No, wait! I'm the emperor! It's me, Kuzco!" He tried to stop the assault, but the guards weren't listening, leaving the emperor shocked. "They're not listening to me!"

Pacha began to sweep the potions into his poncho, Atoc quickly helping. "Just take 'em all." The older man suggested. Kuzco swept up the last of the potions up with his hooves. But the guards were getting closer.

The trio scrambled up and behind a table full of potions. In an act of desperation Pacha flipped the table, hoping it would buy them a little time to get away from the murderous guards. The potions splashed onto the unsuspecting guards turning the group into a warthog, a lizard, a flamingo, an octopus, a gorilla, and a cow. The sudden transformations made them pause for a moment, before Yzma appeared beside them yelling:

"Get them!"

One of the guards, who was not taking the whole transformation thing well said "Hey, I've been turned into a cow. Can I go home?"

"You're excused." Yzma dismissed the poor man before snarkily asking, "Anyone else?"

"No, we're good. Yeah, we're-we're good." The rest of the guards confirmed. Prompting another "Get them!" to be shouted.

The slight distraction allowed for Kuzco, Pacha and Atoc to get a head start running from the guards. Right now, only Kuzco could call them off, but only if he was human.

"We've gotta change you back. Try this one." Pacha uncorked a vial and held it up for the emperor to drink. Turning the poor ruler into a turtle.

"Uh, Pacha, Atoc? Little help!" He called, crawling along. Atoc quickly scooped him up as she ran, since she'd been just behind them.

"I got you!" she continued to run, holding the reptile ruler in her arms. And, though he didn't quite like being a turtle, being this close to Atoc was nice.

"Come on! Come on!" Pacha shouted, looking back to make sure that his daughter had gotten the emperor.

They ran through a door, only to find two sets of stairs coming down from above them and one larger staircase leading down below them. The octopus was coming down one of the sets of stairs, now wielding three axes. The trio jumped onto the polished hand rails sliding down them. Atoc dropped Kuzco in the process and ended up on her father's back, who was standing on Kuzco's shell. At the bottom of the stairs were the flamingo, warthog, and gorilla, waiting for them to finish their descent. Pacha pulled a few vials out and Atoc pointed to one.

"Oh, please be something with wings." Pacha prayed as he opened up the vial and got the emperor to drink it.

The group flew over the heads of the guards, Pacha now holding onto the tail of a bird.

"Yeah! We're flyin'!" Kuzco shouted, glad to not be slow anymore and to get away from the guards. Until he realized he was a parrot and could not carry one person, let alone two. "Uh-oh."

They fell and landed on the sculpture around a doorway, the guards still behind them. Atoc, again, scooped up the emperor and ran through the doorway with her father.

"We're not getting anywhere with you picking the vials. I'm picking the next one." Kuzco insisted, not at all happy with continuing to turn into animals. He just wanted to be human again. The only good part of this was that Atoc kept carrying him everywhere.

"Fine by me!" Pacha shouted, maybe the emperor would pick the right potion, and this would all be over.

"Give me that one." The bird pointed to a random vial that was offered to him, turning him into a whale. "Don't you say a word." Kuzco had made the worst choice so far, but he did not want to hear any snarky remarks about it.

The bridge they were on was not built to hold the weight of a whale, so it crumbled out from under their feet. The three screamed as they plunged towards the canal below. They splashed down right in front of a shocked Yzma and the guards.

"Quick! Drain the canals!" Yzma ordered. She was determined to win, she was so close.

Thankfully the canals were deep and wide enough to fit a whale. When everyone had surfaced, the two villagers on the back of the whale, Pacha quickly pulled out another potion for Kuzco to try.

"Open up!" Pacha demanded before throwing the potion into Kuzco's mouth. Once the smoke from the transformation dispersed, a llama was floating in the water of the canal.

"Yea! I'm a llama again!" Kuzco cried happily, splashing the water before he remembered that he didn't want to be a llama. "Wait."

Atoc giggled at the emperor's antics, before they were all distracted by the water suddenly draining out of the palace, sending them down a massive whirlpool. The water was drained through the nose on the front of the palace, thankfully everyone was able to grab onto the rim of the nostril, saving them from breaking a couple of bones on the stairs of the palace.

Yzma looked down the drain, and upon seeing them still alive, she ordered the soldiers after them. "There they go! After them!"

"Come on, men!" The lizard said, rallying his troops. "Nobody lives forever! Charge!" The guards all jumped down the drain, only to find the surface slicker than they were expected and they all fell out of the nose.

Yzma watched as the guards failed and figured if she wanted this done right, she had to do it herself. So, while Atoc, Pacha and Kuzco climbed up the outside of the palace, she ripped down a couple of curtains so that she could make her way down the nose. She dropped down and bounced, sending her careening up and around. She landed between Kuzco and Pacha, who was holding the last two potions.

"Okay, only two left. It's gotta be one of these." When Yzma landed, Pacha fell back one way and Kuzco fell back the other, knocking into Atoc. The potions that Pacha was holding flew into the air over Yzma's head. Both her and Kuzco dove for the two potions on the ledge between them. When they landed, Yzma's elbow crashed down on one of the vials.

"No!" yelled Pacha, that could be the potion that Kuzco needed. There was an explosion of pink that accompanied the transformations.

Deep evil laughter and a set of glowing eyes came through the smoke. Atoc clung to Kuzco's neck out of fear of what this potion turned Yzma into, until the smoke cleared revealing a tiny grey kitten, who meowed.

"Awwwww!" cooed Atoc. "She's kinda cute!"

"I'll take that." Kuzco grabbed the potion that would make him human again, smiling smugly at the kitten.

"This is the one. This'll change you back to a human." Pacha said, relieved that this was all over.

"Are you ready to be human again?" Atoc asked, just as relieved as her father to have this all over with. She was so done with running around the jungle.

Kuzco nodded, before putting the cork between his teeth, prepared to pull it out and become human again. But of course, Yzma had other plans. She launched herself at Kuzco's face, scratching it with her newly acquired claws.

"Ow!" The emperor cried out. "Hey, get her off! Ow! Get her off me!" Pacha and Atoc moved to pull the cat off the poor llama, but Pacha got claws in his arm.

He pulled his arm away and lost his balance, falling over the side of the ledge that they'd been standing on. He managed to catch hold of the eye before he fell too much further.

"DAD!" screamed Atoc, panic coursed through her veins at the sight of her father falling. She wanted to find a way down to help her dad, but she couldn't see a safe way down. Tears of frustration began to roll down her cheeks.

Kuzco finally got the cat off his head by slamming her into the wall. He looked over the edge of the outcrop to see if Pacha was really all right.

"Drink the potion!" Pacha called back up. Kuzco couldn't do anything to try and save him if he was still a llama.

"Okay, okay!" Kuzco brought his hoof up so that he could drink the potion, only to see his hoof empty of said potion. "Where did it go? Where is it?" He panicked, did he drop it? How could he have lost it?

"Looking for this?" A squeaky voice asked him. He looked down to see Yzma holding the potion in her tiny paws. Yzma on the other hand, was more concerned with how the transformation had affected her voice. "Is that my voice? Is that my voice? Oh, well."

She held the potion towards the edge of the ledge, scaring both Kuzco and Atoc.

"No!" cried Atoc, though she made no move towards the potion, scared that the crazy woman would drop it out of spite.

"No, no! Don't drop it!" Kuzco begged.

"I'm not going to drop it, you fool! I'm going to drink it! And once I turn back into my beautiful self, I'm going to kill you!" Yzma laughed, reveling in the fact that her evil plan was working. Then she bit down on the cork, trying to use her teeth to help her get it out. But it was stuck in the bottle. She tried pulling on it with her other paw, the hit it on the ground, then she tried jumping on it, before she was finally so frustrated that she threw it, hoping it would shatter. The vial did not shatter, but rather bounced off the wall and off the side of the ledge. Yzma jumped after it, before she realized that she too would fall.

"Oh! Uh-oh," were the last things that Kuzco and Atoc heard her say before she was falling. The potion, however was caught by a curve in the architecture and bounced around a bit more before stopping on a small square outcropping.

Pacha tried to climb back up, but only ended up losing his footing.

"Dad! Stay there!" Atoc called down. "I'm coming!"

"No stay there!" He called back. He wasn't going to risk his daughter's life. Kuzco was more worried about getting to the potion and leapt across the edifice of the building going after it.

"Kuzco!" Pacha called out again, knowing that Kuzco would be able to make it down to him. Llamas were very good at climbing places.

"Be right there! Give me a minute!" Kuzco was so close to getting the potion, and then he could go save his friend and everything would be fine. He stretched himself out but could not quite reach the potion.

"Kuzco!" Pacha called desperately as he lost his grip with one hand. "Whoa!"

"Kuzco, please!" Atoc cried, still helpless on the ledge. She'd never been a fan of heights, so this was her worst nightmares come true.

"Kuzco!" Pacha cried once more, his voice lased with anger, sadness, and desperation. But Kuzco kept reaching for the vial. Pacha screamed as his left hand started to slip of the curved stone, Atoc sobbed loudly from above, shutting her eyes tight. She couldn't watch her father fall to his doom.

But a pair of hooves grabbed Pacha's hand just as he started to fall. A relieved sigh left his mouth as the llama pulled him up.

"The vial!" Pacha realized it was tipping too far and then it fell.

Atoc, who had peaked between her fingers when she'd heard her father speak again, saw the vial teetering of the edge and made a move to try and grab it, but it plummeted towards the ground before she could.

Unbeknownst to the three people that were stranded on the exterior of the palace, a trampoline salesman had set up one of his products in the loading bay down below. The grey kitten that was now Yzma bounced off the trampoline and headed right back up the way she came, the way the vial was falling. Yzma caught the vial and continued the upwards path, laughing at her success.

Pacha had managed to climb up to stand on one of the features on the wall, when Yzma passed them and smashed into the bottom of another feature, dropping the vial again. It bounced down the face of the building, landing just above Pacha and Kuzco.

"The vial!" Pacha gasped, worried it would tumble off again, but then he noticed the architecture up to the vial. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" He asked Kuzco.

The llama nodded, completely understanding where this was going. The two stood back to back and began to climb up the gap like they'd done in the canyon. Only this time went a lot smoother.

"Yes!" Atoc yelled, jumping a little. "You're almost there!" She encouraged them as they climbed, then she saw the sneaky little cat climbing down. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for what she was about to do.

Atoc began to slowly climb down the outside of the building, hoping she would be able to stop, or at least delay, Yzma from getting to the potion.

But Yzma got to the potion first. She snatched it and jumped away. Laughing once more at her success.

"I win." She stated, before she was smashed with a trapdoor that nobody was expecting. The vial flew through the air and Pacha caught it. Finally, it was over.

"Whoa." It had been Kronk who had thrown open the door, and he was just as stunned as everyone.

"Got it!" Pacha announced, not really paying Kronk much attention.

"What are the odds of that trap door leadin' me out here?" Kronk wondered, taking in the view.

Pacha and Kuzco were able to pull themselves up onto a ledge, and they laughed and hugged each other, relieved that it was finally over.

"Hey!" a voice from above called. "Don't celebrate without me!" They looked up to see Atoc struggling her way down, before she too noticed Kronk. "Hey Kronk!"

"Yeah?" Kronk looked up, noticing the girl above him.

"Catch me!"

"You got it!"

Atoc leapt from her perch and the ex-henchman caught her and lowered her down to her dad and the emperor, where she joined in on the hug, before the two men realized that they were hugging each other for too long and pulled away.

"Here, uh, let me get this for you." Pacha pulled the cork out of the vial and passed it to Kuzco, who happily accepted.

"Well, see ya on the other side." He said, before drinking the whole vial.

There was the cloud of typical pink smoke, signifying that the transformation took place, and once it had cleared, Kronk helped the three through the door, and peeled Yzma off the wall, before shutting the door.

A few days later, after everything had been explained to the court and Kuzco was emperor again, he was working on fixing all his old mistakes. He had almost finished. He was apologizing to the old man that he'd thrown out of the window for thrown out of the window for throwing off his groove.

"Oh, now, you-you-you stop being so hard on yourself. All is forgiven." The man forgave the young emperor, since he was fine.

"You're sure?" Kuzco wanted to make sure he really was forgiven.

"Oh, it's not the first time I was tossed out a window, and it won't be the last. What can I say? I'm a rebel." The old man pretended to box the emperor, making Kuzco hold up his hands in surrender.

"Whoa-ho-ho, tiger. Oh, hey!" The man landed a punch and though it didn't really hurt, Kuzco let him pretend. "I gotta use that arm later. Okay, buddy, take care." Kuzco laughed as the old man went back to his duties. "He's a sweet guy." Then he spotted Pacha and Atoc sadly looking to the model of Kuzcotopia. And Kuzco knew he couldn't destroy their home anymore. Not after he'd seen the village and interacted with the people.

"So, you lied to me." Kuzco stood on the opposite side of the table looking annoyed with the peasants.

"I did?" Pacha asked, not remembering when he could have lied.

"Yeah. You said when the sun hits this ridge just right, these hills sing." Kuzco reminded him. "Well, pal, I was dragged all over those hills and I did not hear any singing."

Pacha and Atoc were confused for a minute, until they realized what Kuzco was doing.

"So, I'll be building my summer home on a more magical hill. Thank you." Kuzco removed the model of his summer home and held his hand out for the model home that Atoc was holding.

"Couldn't pull the wool over your eyes, huh?" Pacha joked as his daughter handed over the piece.

"No, no, I'm sharp. I'm on it." Kuzco replaced the house on its proper hill. "Looks like you and your family are stuck on the tuneless hilltop forever, pal."

Pacha just smiled and looked down, thankful that the emperor had changed his mind after all. Kuzco sat down on the bench next to Pacha, Atoc was still standing and inspecting the model, since she wasn't present at the first meeting.

"You know, I'm pretty sure I heard some singing on the hill next to us." Pacha mentioned casually. "In case you're interested."

"And the singing hills that you heard about was probably me." Atoc mentioned, holding up one of the model houses to get a better look at it. "I sing when I do my chores and it echoes through the valley."

Kuzco looked at her, amazed that she was the reason for the singing in the valley. That's when he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

* * *

"Ha! Boom, baby!" Kuzco yelled, kicking open the door to his new summer home, dressed in his swim trunks. Pacha had helped build the emperor a decent sized hut on the next hill over, just below his.

"Ha! Boom, baby!" Pacha repeated the action, dressed similarly.

Kuzco ran down to the waterfall that would lead him to the swimming hole and jumped, landing with a cannonball in the pool. While Pacha swung in on a vine and created a huge splash, which Kuzco used to float to the edge of the pond.

 _"You'd be the coolest dude in the nation,_

 _Or the hippest cat in creation_

 _But if you ain't got friends then nothing's worth the fuss_

Chicha and her new born baby, Yupi, were waiting with Atoc. When Kuzco approached them, Atoc held out a green knitted fabric, which Kuzco put on only to find out it was a poncho with a llama design on the front. Kuzco was so happy to have it, and looked at the design fondly, before hugging Atoc tightly.

 _A perfect world will come to be_

 _When everybody here can see_

 _That a perfect world begins and ends_

 _A perfect world begins and ends_

 _A perfect world begins and ends with us_

The whole family joined in the hug, as the theme song guy slid into the clearing, with some back-up singers, finishing the song he'd been singing.

Atoc looked up at Kuzco's happy face, glad that he was human again, and that he'd changed so much for the better.

Kuzco looked down at the girl beside him, happy to have met her. She blushed and looked away, before she looked back at him and kissed his cheek. Kuzco was left a little dazed, but happy. And Atoc just ushered her siblings away to their Junior Chipmunk meeting, a blush evident on her cheeks.

Pacha only laughed at the two teenagers. He wondered how _this_ adventure was going to end.

 **The End**

 **Thanks to everyone who read this, and waited on my very late updates. I feel bad that it took me so long to finish this, but it's done now. I don't think I'm going to write an epilogue, but I may write a short one shot that wraps everything up a little better. It may reference Kronk's New Groove, so be on the look out for that! I'll post updates on my profile. Thanks so much again, you're amazing!**


End file.
